Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Pictured at the recent graduation ceremony in NUI Galway are Neil Kelly, from Claremorris in Co. Mayo and Louise Gilligan from Newcastle in Galway city. Both Neil and Louise were trained in conjunction with Sogeti Ireland and, after completing their internships, were employed fulltime as graduate developers with Sogeti Consulting in Ballycoolin in Dublin 15.

The innovative Higher Diploma in Software Design and Development offers internships to graduates and works with leading ICT companies to meet their employment needs

NUI Galway President Dr Jim Browne has awarded the first group of students their Higher Diploma in Software Design and Development (Industry Stream) programme. 90% of those that graduated from the course have found employment.

The programme is an innovative collaboration between NUI Galway and leading Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies which help design the course and provide internships for the graduates.

Dr Enda Howley, Director of the Higher Diploma in Software Design and Development (Industry Stream) said “we are seeing huge benefits of closer collaboration between academics and industry and we are fortunate now that these students are able to reap the rewards of this new programme.”

“The first year of the programme has exceeded all expectations” he said “and we look forward to working with many more talented students over the coming years and engaging with more new companies interested in developing their long-term supply chain of talent.”

The ICT Skills scheme was devised by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to fund the university fees of suitable graduates from areas such as engineering and science to give them the skills that are needed in the software development industry.

NUI Galway has developed the Higher Diploma programme with a view to selecting up to 20 highly performing graduates from areas such as Civil Engineering and pairing them for re-training and internships with suitable industry partners.